Depending on which door you walk in, SPACE Gallery in Portland, Maine, is either a theatre, a traditional art gallery, an artist studio space, or a presentation hall. But to new executive director Kelsey Halliday Johnson, the organization’s greatest strength is its ability to “cross-pollinate” into a variety of arts and forms.

The non-profit formed in 2002, grew into a large space on Congress Street and helped anchor a burgeoning arts district for the city. Two years ago, after a capital campaign, SPACE bought its building and is now positioned to become a major gallery player for artists from around New England and beyond.

When Take sat down with SPACE Gallery’s new director, she had only been on the job about three weeks. Johnson, 31, was born in Philadelphia and previously held positions at the Michener Art Museum, Locks Gallery, Vox Populi, the Penn Museum, and has taught photography and digital arts at the University of Pennsylvania and Interlochen Center for the Arts.

As set designers in the adjoining theatre hammered away, getting the room ready for a play that weekend, Johnson talked about the draw of a regional gallery, the scale of her expanding organization and the challenges of modern art.

Take: What is it like coming to Portland from Philadelphia? Are there similarities? What did it take to make the leap in geography and scale?

Kelsey Halliday-Johnson: The geography was easy because Maine is really beautiful. I was very excited about that. I’ve been coming to Maine for a long time and in fact had talked in the past about looking for cities to move to and Portland had been on that list. It’s funny though because Philly is a city very much in the shadow of New York and that really affects the cultural sector where there’s only a couple of major commercial galleries and artists get to a certain level of their career and they move to New York or LA. I’ve always shied away from moving to New York and I’m very interested in regional art histories and a non-New York dominated narrative of what contemporary art is, so in that sense it was really about finding another place to be where you can elevate the cultural practice that’s happening with contemporary artists that doesn’t have to be centered around the huge cultural vortex that actually ends up with a lot of incestuous and similar thinking. There’s a lot of exciting and creative projects that can happen outside of that.

T: You come from the James Michener museum. I would imagine that is a very different place than space.

KHJ: I used to also work at Vox Populi, which is a sort of collective model kindred to SPACE. So I was toggling many things to keep my artistic focus, but also expand my skill set. Michener was interesting because it was the first time I ever worked for something that was regionally focused, and I was drawn to how to bring a contemporary program to a regionally focused museum. It’s a special place and I’m interested in how a smaller place can have major art history programs and output. So I feel strongly about looking a little deeper, to be locally focused but national and globally minded.

T: So do you look at SPACE as regional or a national organization?

KHJ: Good question and something I hope we can define in people’s minds and imaginations. I think a lot of people look at the website or something we do and ask if we have a local mandate. SPACE doesn’t but it also has a long history and strong commitment to elevating emerging to mid-career practitioners to larger opportunities and there’s something to be said about aiming for both of those things.

T: Given SPACE’s mutli-media approach to gallery space, how do you pull persons across the genre? In other words, how is someone who is interested in your film series, also come out to a play or gallery showing?

KHJ: Encounters with artists, for me, are the biggest draw. I love art history, but if you’re just reading or seeing, you hit your head against the wall because you want to find the source material. So the fact that we have artist and film maker talks means a lot. Those activities are a way people can realize art doesn’t happen in a vacuum. I’m interested in the idea that the arts are a form of research that has a process and a series of theorems and things that people pursue in their studio, and they reveal the evidence of that search in their final product.

T: As a new director, what’s the big priority, the thing that’s taking your brain space right now?

KHJ: Having worked at an interdisciplinary organization, I’m interested in seeing how we can most clearly explain what we do well and also to create a critical space for artists and their intentions. It’s easy to keep rolling and getting people in the doors for events, but I want to make sure we’re building better archives and creating opportunities for writing and dialogue. I want to be able to explain to people contextually what’s on view. There are people who see contemporary art and don’t feel welcome, so my work right now is to create a sense of “come in and let’s talk about what you see.”

T: Where does SPACE stand in Portland? How are you unique here?

KHJ: I’m in a period of active listening, but my sense is there is a magnetic draw with a certain audience that has been at the heart of this loyal community for a long time. But I also think there are people who walk by our doors and have no idea what we do or who we are. But this is a true arts district that’s going to last and SPACE is crucial to that.

Kelsey Halliday Johnson–executive director, SPACE Gallery
Portland, Maine
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Top image, Kelsey Halliday Johnson

The post Finding Space in Portland appeared first on Take Magazine.

Walking into any one of Maine’s three Holy Donut operations is an all-five-senses experience. The line twists out the door as funky music plays overhead. The smell of fried sugar has your mouth on salivation alert as your eyes go directly to the tantalizing wall of donuts. Runners literally finish up a few miles on Saturday mornings at this location, as it’s the perfect place to reward their hard work.

At Holy Donut, the energy is high and the line moves fast. Employees behind the counter quickly take orders and pack up white cardboard boxes with donut flavors that range from triple berry, fresh lemon, and coconut, to their most popular donut: the dark chocolate sea salt.

The secret (until you read this, of course) ingredient in these popular donuts came from a friend of Holy Donut owner Leigh Kellis. He suggested Kellis try potatoes in her donuts, noting, “Potato makes everything better.” Turns out he was right. “We have always used real Maine potato,” says Kellis. “In addition to wheat flour, Maine potato adds moisture and a texture that is delicious.”

Kellis turned to making donuts for a living because she was longing for a project and had a serious craving for some comfort food—donuts, to be specific. She decided Portland needed a good donut shop so in 2011, Kellis started honing her skills in her home kitchen. Using Maine’s largest crop proved the perfect combination and selling point. Countless test donuts later, Holy Donut was born.

Keillis’ first wholesale order was a dozen donuts a day for a local coffee shop. Now, six years later, Holy Donut has 80 employees and makes over two million donuts a year. With three locations—two in Portland and one in Scarborough—Holy Donut often sells out early, closing its doors when the supply runs out. Kellis admits making the right amount of donuts can be tricky.

Holy Donut makes about 20 tried-and-true flavors daily, including plenty of gluten-free selections. These beauties are as healthy as donuts can get, Kellis says. “We use all natural, from-scratch ingredients. Cage-free eggs, unbleached wheat flour, real potato, and real buttermilk make all the difference,” she says. “We also roast our own sweet potatoes for sweet potato donuts (my other favorite!) and make glazes with real fruits and only vegetable coloring. Never fake stuff!”

Leigh Kellis-Owner, the Holy Donut
Portland, Maine
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Top image courtesy of Leigh Kellis

The post Holy Mashed Potatoes! appeared first on Take Magazine.

It turns out that when it comes to the prestigious James Beard awards, the third time is the charm for Portland, Maine, restauranteurs Michael Wiley and his partner, Andrew Taylor. They won this year in the Best Chef: Northeast category after being nominated in 2015 and 2016. The last chef from Maine to win this award was Melissa Kelly, back in 2013.

Wiley says he has his mother to thank for his award-winning career. She’s the one who got him started cooking. “When I was a child I frequently cooked alongside my mother in the kitchen,” he says.

Today he and Taylor operate three restaurants in Portland—Hugo’s, Eventide Oyster Co., and The Honey Paw. All three focus on fresh and local food. Hugo’s, which is where Wiley and Taylor met in 2010 when they were both chefs, is the incubator for all three restaurants.  “At Hugo’s, we are methodical and technique-driven. Chefs are encouraged to utilize the highest-level of ingredients available from a tight-knit network of local purveyors, allowing Hugo’s to constantly evolve,” Wiley says. “We then use a lot of that creative technique we developed at Hugo’s at both Eventide Oyster Co. and The Honey Paw.”

Sharing a kitchen encourages chefs across the three properties to collaborate and exchange ideas. Still, each restaurant has its own niche. Eventide Oyster Co. focuses, as its name implies, on the freshest seafood available pulled from nearby Casco Bay and the greater Gulf of Maine. The Honey Paw, the newest of the restaurants, explores international flavors. “We wanted to experiment with the culinary cultures of Southeast Asia, China, and beyond,” he says of The Honey Paw. “We really wanted to serve comfort food—heaping portions of noodles, umami-laden rice bowls, large-format Korean Fried Chicken. The food at The Honey Paw is supposed to be fun, but prepared with the same skill and attention to ingredients as both Hugo’s and Eventide Oyster Co.”

Korean Fried Chicken + Cornbread

Wiley says he and Taylor focus on using the best ingredients possible while presenting them in a thoughtful way throughout all three of their restaurants. “No matter what type of food, the local ingredients are what shine through,” he says.

Wiley, who grew up in New Hampshire, went to Colby College in Maine. He went out west after graduation, supporting his love of skiing by working in several different restaurants. Taylor, originally from Massachusetts, came to Maine to attend Bates College. After spending years traveling across the country from Seattle to Boston, he missed Maine and took a position at Hugo’s, which is known for its New England fare.

Andrew Taylor and Michael Wiley, photo by Zack Bowen

Growing up, Taylor spent time scavenging for wild oysters and mussels while vacationing on Cape Cod. “I’ve always had a passion for seafood and local ingredients,” he says. Not surprisingly, then, his favorite dish to make is Eventide’s Fish Sandwich. “It’s our take on the Filet-O-Fish,” he says. “It hits all the right comfort food notes, but it’s infinitely more complex.”

While some might bemoan Maine’s seasonal cycle, Wiley says the short growing cycle pushes them to think outside the box and be more creative. “Maine has the most amazing bounty—vegetables, seafood, meats. We really have a lot to work with,” he says. And Portland’s strong restaurant scene means they get to experiment to their hearts’ content.

Michael Wiley–co-owner, Hugo’s, Eventide Oyster Co, and The Honey Paw
Portland, Maine
Hugo’s website
Hugo’s Facebook
Eventide Oyster Co. website
Eventide Oyster Co. Facebook
The Honey Paw website
The Honey Paw Facebook

Top image, brown butter lobster roll, photo by Zack Bowen

The post Putting Portland on the Food Map appeared first on Take Magazine.

The Mallet Brothers Band has been together for eight years now, evolving from an acoustic band to a jam-based rock one. A lot of that progression, says Luke Mallett, comes from playing live shows. “We like to rock and jam for extended periods of time, and we like to get a little psychedelic on stage,” says Mallett, who plays electric guitar and sings.

Mallet calls their success to date a grassroots movement, noting they’ve never had the support of a management agency or a record label. “[It’s about] hitting the pavement ourselves,” he says. “It’s got pros and cons, but it’s gotten us to this point.”

Mallett and the other members have considered living somewhere else, but they feel deeply rooted in New England. “It’s something that any Maine-er will be able to relate to,” he says of Maine’s influence on who they are and what they do. “It has a grip on all of us, and in certain places there’s just a really deep sense of where you came from. I think Northern Maine is a lot like that.”

The band’s most recent release, The Falling of the Pine, celebrates the culture and history of Maine by reimagining a group of 19th century Maine folk songs. Mallet’s mother was a librarian, and his brother, Will, found a 1927 book in her collection called Minstrelsy of Maine. One of the first pages was a song that mentioned their grandmother’s maiden name. Will Mallet was hooked. The band created a concept record based off that first song, and ran with it from there.

Mallet hopes to continue the journey the band is on without having to go get day jobs. They plan to keep traveling across the US, spreading their electric and experimental sound. “In this day and age, you can do it from wherever you want to,” says Mallet. “You don’t have to be in Nashville; you just have to show up on a regular basis.”

Luke Mallett–guitarist, singer
Mallet Brothers Band
Portland, Maine
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All photos by Ray MacGregor

The post Getting Psychedelic appeared first on Take Magazine.

Singer and songwriter Jenny Van West of Portland, Maine, has been singing her whole life. “I had the good fortune to go to schools with strong music programs,” she says. “We would sing everything from hymns to songs from South Pacific. We were expected to learn music theory starting in the 4th grade.”

Van West began playing guitar and writing songs during her teen years, but took a break from writing as she thought she lacked talent in that area. “Fast forward to six years ago when I realized that if I could become teachable, I could learn to write songs as well.”

Jenny Van West, photo by Jeff Van West

The realization liberated Van West, although she admits she wrote lot of bad songs in between the good ones. In 2015, she put out her first full-length CD, Something Real, went on the road for the first time, and won the Maine Songwriters Association songwriting contest. “I suppose that shows we aren’t always right about ourselves and can do a lot more than we think we can,” she says.

Growing up near the banks of the Potomac River in Maryland, Van West lived all over New England before settling in Maine in 2005. “We chose Portland. Portland is equal parts salt water, granite, old brick buildings, good food, art, and grit,” Van West says. “Portland has a lot of integrity as a city. There is also tremendous cultural diversity here. If you are lucky like me, you get to hang out with people from all over the world. If you asked for 100 Maine musicians who have positively impacted me,” she adds, “I could write you a book.”

Currently Van West is working on her second album, Happiness to Burn, which will feature ten original songs. It is set to release in October. “This album represents a major leap for me artistically, and I’m extremely proud of what it’s becoming.”

Jenny Van West, photo by Titi de Baccarat

She recently played a sold-out show at the Stoltz Listening Room at the Avalon Theater in Easton, Maryland, and sang for 9,000 people at the Women’s March in Augusta, Maine, last January. “Everyone should be singing and making music all the time,” she says. “It should be completely normalized.”

Right now Van West is loving Emmy Lou Harris’ Wrecking Ball album, Rose Cousin’s song “Chosen”, and Shane Alexander’s “Nobody’s Home.” Van West is also a huge fan of local artist Jaw Gems. You can hear these tunes and more on our Take a Listen Spotify channel that features staff listening picks and top tunes chosen by musicians we interview. Take a Listen.

Jenny Van West–Musician
Portland, Maine
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Top image by Elizabeth Harvey

The post Singing With Soul in Portland appeared first on Take Magazine.

Knitting teacher and knitwear designer Bristol Ivy has never followed rules particularly well, an admission that some knitters, who are used to following elaborate charts and directions, might find astounding. “Pretty early on in my knitting career I was just kind of making it up as I went along,” Ivy says.

Ivy started knitting when she was six and her mother taught the garter stitch, the most basic of knitting stitches. It was when she was 17 and a friend taught her how to purl, though, that her knitting life changed. “Watching her create stockinette and ribbing with the help of that mystical purl stitch tipped me over the edge,” Ivy says, “and I haven’t looked back.”

Ivy is mostly self-taught thanks to knitting blogs and watching other knitters, but as knitters know, there’s always more to learn. “I’m actually taking my first knitting class this summer while visiting the Shetland Isles in the UK,” she says, “and I’m so excited to be a student instead of the teacher!”

Inspired by couture and ready-to-wear designers, Ivy is also inspired by architecture, quilt construction, woodwork, and fine carpentry when she creates her designs. “There’s always a wonderful moment in looking at other people’s work where you stop seeing how they did it and start seeing how you might do it: the way a garment is photographed affects your interpretation of the construction, or how your own preferences for technique or style influence how you see the silhouette and pattern,” she says. “We are so shaped by our history—both the history of what we wear and the history of what we make—that often the places where our inspiration starts and the places where the finished piece ends are miles apart. That transition between the two is so interesting to me.”

Ivy started designing with the intent to publish in 2010 while traveling in New Zealand. With limited access to the online knitting world, she spent long bus rides swatching (aka creating small samples to make sure the gauge works for the size needles you’re using), tweaking,and reknitting. Soon the designs for Christchurch Shawl and Bristol’s Cowl were born.

After having various jobs in the industry for about eight years while working on her own knitting designing and teaching business, Ivy went totally freelance in the summer of 2015. The yarn company that employed her was moving across the country, and she decided to stay in Maine rather than make the move. “It was a tough choice,” she says, “but in the end I knew that it was time to give my own dreams a try—and also, I couldn’t leave Maine! It turns out that this lifestyle is pretty much perfect for me; I’m very self-driven and disciplined, love the flexibility of making my own schedule, and wake up each day excited to work.”

“The maker community in Maine is unparalleled, especially when it comes to people working in the knitting industry,” Ivy says. “I started my work in this community surrounded by talented women who were living my dream life, and so it never occurred to me that it might not be possible for me to do the same. These women buoy me up and encourage me, and the ingenuity and hard work of them and the larger community inspires me daily. There’s also the landscape, the weather, the history—I don’t think I could separate my work from Maine if I tried.”

Ivy finds the balance between the mathematical and the artistic expression you can explore through knitting the perfect representation of the different sides of a brain. “You have such room to explore different ideas,” she says. “And at the end of the day, if you’re not happy with what you’ve created, you still have the same materials you started with: a pair of sticks and some string, plus the new knowledge that you’ve gained from that little bit of play.”

Bristol Ivy–Knitwear Designer and Teacher
Portland, Maine
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The post Knitting by Design appeared first on Take Magazine.

As a professional actor, David Surkin had a vision of the theater company he wanted to create in Maine: he wanted to create a theater where performers, from both Maine and around the country, could get paid to create. “I believe that an environment where there is no option to be paid for your art can and often will lead to the exploitation of performing artists,” says Surkin. With this in mind, Portland-based Cast Aside Productions (CAP) was designed to be a place where all artists are compensated for their work.

CAP premiered its first production, Jason Robert Brown’s The Last 5 Years in 2014. The brains behind the non-union professional company include Artistic Director Surkin, Executive Director Celeste Green, and Music Director Rebekkah Willey. The trio met after escaping the entertainment industries of Los Angeles and New York City in favor of a small theater in Maine where Cast Aside began.

Cast Aside Productions, Bat Boy The Musical

Aside from providing a paying job for artists, CAP also aims to enhance the Portland economy. “This city is so full of amazing things to see and world-class restaurants,” Surkin says. “We believed there also needed to be world-class entertainment, especially musical theater, to allow someone visiting to experience something as equally amazing as what this city offers in terms of food.”

Considering the choices in productions, the pun on the name Cast Aside seems to work well for the company in terms of its taste for dark, absurd, and beautiful work that may be otherwise overlooked. The 2017 season was crafted specifically to be an entertaining and funny escape from the recent election year. The first half of the year featured Gutenberg! while the second half includes Hedwig and the Angry Inch in August and The Pillowman (the company’s first full-length play) in late October.

The company is also in heavy pre-production for the New England premiere of Disaster! with its production scheduled to be one of the first after the show’s Broadway run last year. “We have been in contact with one of the creators and original director of the Broadway production, Jack Plotnick, to implement some script changes that were added for the London production,” Surkin says. “To work so closely with the original production team is an honor and we are excited to bring this hilarious show to Portland this July.”

Cast Aside Productions, Disaster! The Musical

Aside from full-length productions, CAP also hosts a series of “Boozicals.” These are free shows performed at the Flask Lounge in Portland the first Wednesday of every month. Next month the theme is Lin-Manuel Miranda vs. Stephen Sondheim. “I saw musical theater people taking over karaoke nights in Portland, making casual karaoke performers insecure because the spirit of karaoke isn’t about belting out a song with a table of your friends doing six-part harmony in perfect pitch,” says Surkin. “So as a company we decided we wanted to hang out at a bar and talk about musical theater, hear great performances, and let the casual karaoke fans sing ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’ in peace.”

“The world of musical theater is beautiful and bizarre and wonderful,” Surkin adds, “and these events allow us to connect to the people that are into that.”

David Surkin – Artistic Director, Cast Aside Productions
Portland, Maine
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The post Cast Aside: A Look At Portland’s Paying Production Co. appeared first on Take Magazine.

Maine artist Stacy Howe is an artistic alchemist. Her drawings meld Surrealistic and Victorian themes, from dreams and dark humor to elements from the natural world and other seemingly random ideas. She calls her largely black and white works “sanguinary assemblages on paper.” No matter how they’re described, they’re compelling and, perhaps, a little menacing.

“I’m inspired by many things,” Howe says. “I’m very interested in nature, our fear of nature, as well as Victorian material culture. I love the Gothic tropes, moody atmosphere and psychology of the era.”

Howe builds three-dimensional models constructed of paper and objects she wants to draw. She then cuts and layers the images to create a finished piece. Her works can combine pencil, charcoal, pen and ink as well as acrylic, iodine, and even blood. “I draw very non-traditionally,” she says. “I’m more like a draftsman. I’m very organized, I make cut-outs and rearrange them. They reflect my own personal lexicon.”

Howe’s lexicon is diverse; history and New England’s natural world figure prominently in her work. Raised in Northborough, Massachusetts, Howe once explored local woods and apple orchards as a child; she now prefers living on the coast, in Portland, Maine. “The ocean is so much part of life here,” she says. “I could never be landlocked.” She studied history before receiving a bachelor’s degree in studio art from University of Massachusetts, Boston (and later a master’s degree in studio art from Maine College of Art). Historic research—eclectic subjects range from London’s Great Smog in 1952 to Boston’s Great Molasses Flood of 1919—is an important part of her process; she’s especially fascinated with Surrealistic themes like death, horror, and the occult. “I have many similarities with them in my subject and practice,” she says.

Stacy Howe, FUSELAGE OF ANTIQUES AND MEMORABILIA 2015, ink, charcoal, graphite, acrylic on paper, 48” X 60”

A fan of Law and Order reruns, Howe employs the same clinically detached observation of death and horror in her work as a television cop. Her fantastical images unexpectedly pair these themes with beautiful or fanciful images like jewels, animals or flowers. “I’ll create a dead body with occult objects arranged around it in a matter-of-fact way,” she says. Her work has evolved according to what she interprets as horror. “I like the idea that horror can be the anticipation of something happening,” she says. “I like creating that bridge for the viewer so they can anticipate and bring their own ideas to what’s happening.”

Howe’s work has been featured in numerous group and individual shows around Maine, including the Portland Museum of Art‘s 2015 Biennal. Her work is included in the ArtPM Challenge exhibition at the Buoy Gallery in Kittery, Maine, through April 30; and in Bared, an exhibition at the Ground Floor Gallery, Nashville, Tennessee, starting in August 2017.

Stacy Howe — artist from Portland, Maine
Website

Top Image: Piñata Seal 2014, ink, acrylic, charcoal, pencil, 22” X 38”

The post The Artistic Alchemy of Stacy Howe appeared first on Take Magazine.